Pepe Silvia

Communism never took root in Japan. Because on this day in 1960, a 17 year old ultranationalist stabbed Japan’s top socialist on live TV for trying to pull the country into Mao’s orbit. Before the attack, Asanuma had gone to Beijing in 1959, while the Great Leap was already starving millions, and called America the shared enemy of Chinese and Japanese. That summer, his party helped lead the riots that forced Eisenhower to cancel his visit. When he took the stage at Hibiya Hall he was the face of the movement to scrap the security treaty. After the stabbing, the treaty stayed in force, Japan became one of Washington’s closest allies, and the regime Asanuma courted is still the threat Tokyo arms itself against.